Fully booked for Tet
Print As Tet is only days away, Ho Chi Minh City’s East-bound Bus Station has been brought to a near standstill as thousands lined up and squeezed in to grab a ticket for a trip to their hometowns for celebration.
Many failed to get one, and even some fainted from exhaustion.
But although tickets are available from less popular transport companies, people still queue up in long lines to buy tickets at well-known agencies.
(Photo: SGTT)
Yesterday 70-year-old Nhan Tu Anh of Tan Phu District, came to the coach station at 10 am for a ticket to Nghe An Province only to be disappointed upon seeing “Fully booked for Tet” signs posted by ‘brand-name’ companies like Mai Linh, Hoang Long, Thuan Thao, Phuong Trang etc.
Similarly, Nguyen Hong Nga, a student of Ton Duc Thang University, wanted to get a ticket for retuning home five days before Tet, which falls in February but she could not get one.
Nguyen Duc Dai, whose native land is Quang Tri Province, sadly said if he had come to the coach station a few days earlier, he could have got a ticket.
“My wife and I are both workers. We have to wait for our company’s production schedule to know when we can return home. We were just informed about it yesterday,” he explained.
This year, tickets for Quy Nhon, Quang Ngai, Da Nang and Hanoi have been bought the most, according to Mai Linh company.
With 21 buses for the four routes, the company can transport 800 passengers per day, but thousands of people booked before January 5, so we now have no tickets left for trips in some days before Tet, Pham Minh Suong, Mai Linh’s director, explained.
Another popular company, Hoang Long, also informed passengers that there were no tickets left during the one week before Tet.
Fainted and failed
A chaotic scene occurred on January 11 at the ticket booth of Mai Linh in the Eastern Bus Station, as thousands of people flocked there and elbowed each other out to get in line.
A number of people came there as early as 3 am, while Mai Linh did not sell tickets before 9 am as it had informed.
The situation become stressful since 7 am when the area was too crowded and the stations’ security guards could no longer keep the situation under control.
At about 8 am, many fainted after hours jostling and standing in line for tickets.
Among them was Nguyen Thi Quy, who arrived in the station at about 7 am to stand in line for a ticket to Qui Nhon.
After more than two hours suffering the stuffy air and the push forth and back, she fainted from exhaustion.
Thuong Thanh Hai, deputy director of the East-bound Bus Station, blamed Mai Linh for the chaos at its ticket booth.
The station had requested Mai Linh to sell tickets on a wider schedule, instead of on only one day, but the company refused to do so, Hai said.
Everyday, this booth deals with 700-800 passengers, so when they sell tickets for many routes in only one day, the chaos is inevitable, he explained.
